Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Wine Blogging Wednesday #27

It's an icy theme for this month's Wine Blogging Wednesday - hosted by Kitchen Chick, we were sent off in search of ice wines.

I must confess that finding ice wines, any ice wines wasn't an easy task. With many thanks to Google I did track down an Australian "ice wine" - better yet, it's locally produced right here in my state of Victoria. For the purists, it's not a "traditional" ice wine as the grapes do not freeze on the vine.

Wine: Long Gully 2004 Reserve Ice Riesling

Long Gully is located in the Yarra Valley, about an hour's drive east from the city of Melbourne and for WBW we ended up making the trek to the cellar door to get this wine.

The 2004 Ice Riesling is the seventh vintage produced. A portion of the Riesling grapes are left on the vine until late March to optimise sugar levels. It's pressed as usual but the juice is frozen - the water is eliminated and what remains forms the basis of the ice Riesling.

The technical details are as follows:Bottled: 24th March 2005Harvest: 18th March 2004Bé at harvest:11.4Final alcohol:13%

In the glass, it's a deep golden colour with that typical oily appearance that you see in late harvest/botrytis affected wines.

On the nose, the aromas from the "regular" Rieslings are there but heightened - Kerosene notes most associated with aged Riesling come to the fore.

An amalgam of tastes fill the palette, honey and floral flavours meld without being overly sweet. There's a bit more finesse in the wines structure when compared to the more typical "sticky". There's also an unusual tongue tingling sensation, a bit like champagne.

All in all, a most pleasant find. A good match with cheese and citrus desserts and worth a trip back to the winery to snag a few more bottles.

2 comments:

Between you and a few other Australian bloggers, I've had the chance to read about a few Australian ice wines and now I'm curious to find out if they're exported to the States. Thanks for particiating in WBW #27!

(It's taken me a while, but I'm finally revisiting everyone from WBW #27 and re-reading all the posts a second time.)